OTTAWA – When current video on demand licenses come up for renewal in the next few years, the CRTC should re-examine the whole regulatory framework of such services, says the Canadian Association of Broadcasters.
In a submission to the CRTC saying it didn’t oppose in principle an application by SaskTel to create a community channel to be distributed on demand, the CAB added the SaskTel application "represents yet another example of how the nature of VOD is evolving as it becomes an increasingly important element of the Canadian broadcasting system."
The association also pointed out that the VOD licences…
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MONTREAL – Without an updated, more flexible regulatory regime, a drop in ad sales among private conventional radio stations will mirror that of conventional television, Canadian Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell said in a speech today.
As specialty TV services gained in acceptance and popularity, their ad sales grew dramatically (and are still growing), costing traditional over-the-air broadcasters any kind of growth and for some, ad sales fell dramatically. While conventional TV broadcasters draw a larger audience, specialty services have much more targeted demographics, which ad buyers are often more eager to reach.
O’Farrell told the…
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TORONTO – SUN TV’s daily entertainment news program, Inside Jam, has been cancelled.
The seven-month old half hour show, which was a very late entry into an enormous sea of such shows, will be turned into a once a week hour long program, to air on weekends. The station says a new daily program will be announced in May.
According to the Canadian Media Guild, which has organized the Quebecor Media owned station (which was formerly Toronto 1) and is currently negotiating the first collective agreement for the broadcaster, 13 people were let go last week.
The channel’s other…
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OTTAWA – The federal government should open up broadcasting to market forces if it does the same for telecommunications, Cogeco Cable says.
The cableco says it welcomes the telecom policy review panel report issued Wednesday that recommends the feds reduce government and regulatory interference in telecommunications as much as possible. But that should extend to broadcasting, Cogeco says. While the panel’s mandate did not include examining broadcasting, its report did strongly urge the government to conduct a similar review of the broadcasting industry.
Cogeco agrees. “The report of the policy review panel is thought-provoking. However, it does not provide…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC has approved an application by Hector Broadcasting for a new English FM station in New Glasgow, NS, to replace its AM station CKEC, which is the only local private station in the community.
The commission denied proposals from Astral Media Radio Atlantic Inc., Atlantic Broadcasters Ltd., and Acadia Broadcasting Ltd. for new English FMs. All four proposals were to use 94.1 MHz.
Hector has operated CKEC since 1953. It wanted to flip to FM in part to ease night-time technical difficulties. The new FM station will keep the AM’s existing format of a broad-based AC…
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By Greg O’Brien
I REMEMBER WHEN THEN-CRTC broadcasting vice-chair Andrée Wylie told the 1999 CCTA convention in Vancouver that the Commission had no intention of trying to regulate the Internet.
Because of it’s very nature, it’s impossible to regulate the Internet itself (unless you’re China or some other repressive government that deploys some painful cyber-clamps and doesn’t mind tossing people in jail for reading the New York Times or somesuch online), which the CRTC recognized early on. Plus, 1999 was pre tech-bubble and the opportunities of the ‘net seemed endless. Why toss up regulations in front of such potential?
That Commission…
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DARTMOUTH, NS – The CRTC has approved Newcap’s purchase of CKJS Limited, which owns the licence for CKJS-AM radio in Winnipeg, the company announced today.
It will be the broadcaster’s second station in Winnipeg. Last December, Newcap launched CKFE FM as Café 100.7, playing adult album alternative.
CKJS is a 30-year-old multicultural and multilingual station, airing programming in 19 languages. Its operations will be combined in the CKFE studios. The advertising and promotional activities will also be combined.
The sale is expected to close within 60 days. The company announced its intention to buy CKJS last fall for $1.8…
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CALGARY and FT. LAUDERDALE – American voice over IP provider Zingotel has filed a $1.2 million civil suit in Alberta against Shaw Communications.
Zingo, Inc. warned in January it would file a lawsuit, which it did late last week. It also said the CRTC can expect to hear from it as well. Zingo alleges that Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw personally told Corus Entertainment executives not to run ads for Zingotel’s service on any Corus channels, after Zingotel had booked the ads. The statement does not say which channels had the ads booked. Shaw and Corus are owned and…
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OTTAWA – In a submission which generally backs a cable company’s request to use the local avail ad time to market its telephony and high speed Internet products along with programming services, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters has also asked the CRTC for more cost clarity.
An intervention filed with the Commission last week mostly supports an application made by Halifax-based MSO EastLink to expand what the broadcast distribution regulations say can be promoted during the so-called "local availability" time on American cable channels. Those channels (like CNN, A&E and The Golf Channel) make two minutes per hour of…
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OTTAWA – Reaction to Wednesday’s report of the federal government’s telecom policy review panel was mixed, including polar opposite opinions from two incumbent phone companies.
MTS Allstream said the recommendations were “hopelessly complicated and impractical,” while Bell Canada called the document “a detailed blueprint for change.”
The CRTC, apparently befuddled by a report that, at 400 pages, is even longer than one of its own policy review documents, said virtually nothing at all.
“The recommendations in this report do not bode well for the pace of competition or innovation in Canada’s telecom sector,” said Chris Peirce, Chief Regulatory Officer…
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